Complete Fairy Tales by Charles Perrault.
Title: Perrault's Complete Fairy Tales.
Author: Charles Perrault.
Genre: Literature, fiction, fairy tales, fantasy.
Country: France.
Language: French.
Publication Date: 1695, 1697, 1756.
Summary: This volume includes the complete 11 faerie tales by Charles Perrault, who laid the foundations for a new literary genre of the fairy tale by deriving from and writing down pre-existing folk-tales. This book also includes 3 faerie tales of his contemporaries, as a basis for comparison. The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood (1697) is a story of a cursed princess, who slumbers for 100 years until a prince comes to wake and wed her, and the consequent trouble of concealing and trying to protect the young princess and then her children from the prince's mother - a cruel queen from the race of ogres. In Puss in Boots (1697), the youngest miller's son is upset when all he gets as his inheritance is a cat, but Puss, once a pair of boots is made for him, turns out to be clever and resourceful enough to make his master's fortune. In Little Tom Thumb (1697), tiny Tom Thumb has to save his siblings from starving in a dark forest, and then from an ogre who wishes to serve them to his friends. In The Fairies (1697), two very different sisters are tested by a fairy, one for kindness and the other for cruelty, and the fairy accordingly rewards the girls with their just desserts. In Ricky of the Tuft (1697), a young prince who is repulsively ugly but brilliantly smart, and a princess in a neighbouring kingdom who is breathtakingly beautiful but insipidly stupid, have the power to give each other what each lacks, but only if they can get over their preconceptions first. Cinderella (1697) is a story about a young woman who is mistreated by her step-mother and step-sisters, but when her god-mother helps her attend a ball, with some impermanent magic, the prince of the kingdom falls madly in love with her. Little Red Riding Hood (1697) is a story about a little girl who makes the mistake of conversing with a sly wolf on her way to her ill grandmother's house. Blue Beard (1697) is a story in which a beautiful young woman marries a ferocious man with a blue beard, who has only one request of her - never to go into a room at the end of the long passage on the lower floor. In The Ridiculous Wishes (1695), Jupiter grants a poor wood-cutter three wishes, but the man is not careful with the desires he lets escape his mouth, and soon must make a choice of how much riches are really worth to him. In Donkey-Skin (1695), a beautiful princess must flee her palace when her father goes mad and disguise herself as an ugly maid clothed in an ugly donkey skin, and comes across a prince who falls in love with her. In Patient Griselda (1695), a prince who mistrusts women finally falls in love with and weds a simple and innocent shepherdess, who promises to be completely patient and obedient, but soon puts the new queen and their daughter through cruel tests of love and devotion. In Beauty and the Beast (1756) by Mme Leprince de Beaumont, a young woman takes her father's place in a ferocious Beast's castle, but finds out that an ugly front hides a beautiful heart. In The Friendly Frog (1697) by Mme d'Aulnoy, a Queen who is taken prisoner by a giantess witch is helped by an industrious and kind frog, who leads the King to the Queen and their daughter, and then, when the princess is grown up, assists in saving her from a ferocious hungry dragon. Princess Rosette (1697) by Mme d'Aulnoy is about a young princess who gets obsessed with marrying a King of the Peacocks, but when her brothers track him down and he agrees to wed her, the princess is betrayed by her nurse and the entire royal family's lives come under great threat.
My rating: 8.5/10.
My review:
♥ He declared he loved her better than he loved himself. His words were faltering, but they pleased the more for that. The less there is of eloquence, the more there is of love.
♥
MORAL
To wait a bit in choosing a husband
Rich, courteous, genteel and kind;
That is understandable enough.
But to wait a hundred years, and all the time asleep,
Not many maidens would be found with such patience.
This story, however, seems to prove
That marriage bonds,
Even though they be delayed, are none the less blissful,
And that one loses notyhing by waiting.
But maidens yearn for the wedding joys
With so much ardour
That I have neither strength nor the heart
To preach this moral to them.
~~The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood.
♥
MORAL
No matter how great may be the advantages
Of enjoying a rich inheritance,
Coming down from father to son,
Most young people will do well to remember
That industry, knowledge and a clever mind
Are worth more than mere gifts from others.
ANOTHER MORAL
If a miller's son, in so short a time,
Can win the heart of a Princess,
So that she gazes at him with lovelorn eyes,
Perhaps it is the clothes, the appearance, and youthfulness
That are seldom the indifferent means
Of inspiring love!
~~Puss in Boots.
♥ And they were troubled also because the youngest was very delicate and could not speak a word. They mistook for stupidity what was in reality a mark of good sense.
♥ It was not that the wood-cutter was less grieved than his wife, but she browbeat him, and he was of the same opinion as many other people, who like a woman to have the knack of saying the right thing, but not the trick of being always in the right.
♥
MORAL
Having many children seldom brings unhappiness,
Especially if they are attractive, well-bred and strong;
But if one is sickly or is slow of wit,
How often is he despised, jeered at and scorned!
Although sometimes it is this oddest one
Who brings good fortune to all the family!
~~Little Tom Thumb.
♥ As for the sister, she made herself so hateful that even her mother drove her out of the house. Nowhere could the wretched girl find any one who would take her in, and at last she lay down in the forest and died.
♥
MORAL
Diamonds and golden coins
Can do great things for our spirit.
Kind words, nevertheless,
Have still greater influence
And are in themselves a richer treasure.
ANOTHER MORAL
Kindness sometimes involves a little trouble
And taking pains to be considerate,
But sooner or later it has its reward
And often at a moment when it's least expected.
~~The Fairies.
♥ "If that is so," said the princess, "I wish with all my heart that you may become the handsomest and most attractive prince in the world, and I give you without reserve the boon which it is mine to bestow."
No sooner had the princess uttered these words than Ricky of the Tuft appeared before her eyes as the handsomest, most graceful and attractive man that she had ever set eyes on.
Some people assert that this was not the work of fairy enchantment, but that love alone brought about the transformation. They say that the princess, as she mused upon her lover's constancy, upon his good sense, and his many admirable qualities of heart and head, grew blind to the deformity of his body and the ugliness of his face; that his hump back seemed no more than was natural in a man who could make the courtliest of bows, and that the dreadful limp which had formerly distressed her now betokened nothing more than a certain diffidence and charming deference of manner. They say further that she found his eyes shone all the brighter for their squint, and that this defect in them was to her but a sign of passionate love; while his great red nose she found nought but martial and heroic.
♥
MORAL
That which you see written here
Is less a story than the truth itself.
Everything is beautiful in the one we love
And all that we love has beauty.
ANOTHER MORAL
In one whom Nature has blessed with a beautiful disposition,
And whose living portrait has that
Which Art can never match;
All these gifts have less effect
In touching a heart
Than a single invisible charm
Which love alone knows how to discover.
~~Ricky of the Tuft.
♥
MORAL
Beauty in a maid is an extraordinary treasure;
One never tires of admiring it.
But what we mean by graciousness
Is beyond price and still more precious.
It was this which her godmother gave Cinderella,
Teaching her to become a Queen.
(So the moral of this story goes.)
Lasses, this is a better gift than looks so fair
For winning over a heart successfully.
Graciousness is the true gift of the Fairies.
Without it, one can do nothing;
With it, one can do all!
ANOTHER MORAL
It is surely a great advantage
To have spirit and courage,
Good breeding and common sense,
And other qualities of this sort,
Which are the gifts of Heaven!
You will do well to own these;
But for success, they may well be in vain
If, as a final gift, one has not
The blessing of godfather or godmother
~~Cinderella.
♥ "Put the cake and the little pot of butter on the bin," he said, "and come up on the bed with me."
Little Red Riding Hood took off her cloak, but when she climbed up on the bed she was astonished to see how her grandmother looked in her nightgown.
"Grandmother dear!" she exclaimed, "what big arms you have!"
"The better to embrace you, my child!"
"Grandmother dear, what big legs you have!"
"The better to run with, my child!"
"Grandmother dear, what big ears you have!"
"The better to hear with, my child!"
"Grandmother dear, what big eyes you have!"
"The better to see with, my child!"
"Grandmother dear, what big teeth you have!"
"The better to eat you with!"
With these words the wicked Wolf leapt upon Red Riding Hood and gobbled up.
♥
MORAL
From this story one learns that children,
Especially young lasses,
Pretty, courteous and well-bred,
Do every wrong to listen to strangers,
And it is not an unheard thing
If the Wolf is thereby provided with his dinner.
I say Wolf, for all wolves
Are not of the same sort;
There is one kind with an amenable disposition
Neither noisy, nor hateful, nor angry,
But tame, obliging and gentle,
Following the young maids
In the streets, even into their homes.
Alas! Who does not know that these gentle wolves
Are of all such creatures the most dangerous!
~~Little Red Riding Hood.
♥
MORAL
Curiosity, in spite of its great charms,
Often brings with it serious regrets.
Every day a thousand examples appear.
In spite of a maiden's wishes, it's a fruitless pleasure,
For once satisfied, curiosity offers nothing,
And ever does it cost more dearly.
ANOTHER MORAL
If one takes a sensible point of view
And studies this grim story,
He will recognize that this tale
Is one of days long past.
No longer is the husband so terrifying,
Demanding the impossible,
Being both dissatisfied and jealous;
In the presence of his wife he now is gracious enough,
And no matter what colour his beard may be
One does not have to guess who is master!
~~Blue Beard.
♥ Marriage, whatever may be said against it, is an excellent remedy for love sickness.
♥ It is not hard to see that the moral of this tale is that it is better to undergo the greatest hardships rather than to fail in one's duty, that virtue may sometimes seem ill-fated but will always triumph in the end.
~~Donkey-Sin.
♥ To tear an infant from its mother's heart, this is grief itself.
♥ By that instinct which nature has given the fairer sex of noticing the invisible wounds which their eyes make, at the moment they are made, the princess knew that she had found a tender lover.
~~Patient Griselda.
♥ "Tell me, now, do you not consider me very ugly?"
"I do," said Beauty, "since I must speak the truth; but I think you are also very kind."
"It is as you say," said the monster; "and in addition to being ugly, I lack intelligence. As I am well aware, I am a mere beast."
"It is not the way with stupid people," answered Beauty, "to admit a lack of intelligence. Fools never realize it."
♥ "Oh yes," answered the Beast, "I have a good heart, right enough, but I am a monster."
"There are many men," said Beauty, "who make worse monsters than you, and I prefer you, notwithstanding your looks, to those who under the semblance of men hide false, corrupt, and ungrateful hearts."
♥ "I am indeed very wicked," she said, "to cause so much grief to a Beast who has shown me nothing but kindness. Is it his fault that he is so ugly, and has so few wits? He is good, and that makes up for all the rest. Why did I not wish to marry him? I should have been a good deal happier with him than my sisters are with their husbands. It is neither good looks nor brains in a husband that make a woman happy; it is beauty of character, virtue, kindness. All these qualities the Beast has."
♥ "Dear Beast, you shall not die," said Beauty; "you shall live and become my husband. Here and now I offer you my hand, and swear that I will marry none but you. Alas, I fancied I felt only friendship for you, but the sorrow I have experienced clearly proves to me that I cannot live without you."
♥ "Beauty," said this lady (who was a celebrated fairy), "come and receive the reward of your noble choice. You preferred merit to either beauty or wit, and you certainly deserve to find these qualities combined in one person. It is your destiny to become a great queen, but I hope that the pomp of royalty will not destroy your virtues. As for you, ladies," she continued, turning to Beauty's two sisters, "I know your hearts and the malice they harbour. Your doom is to become statues, and under the stone that wraps you round to retain all your feelings. You will stand at the door of your sister's palace, and I can visit no greater punishment upon you than that you shall be witnesses of her happiness. Only when you recognize your faults can you return to your present shape, and I am very much afraid that you will be statue forever. Pride, ill-temper, greed, and laziness can all be corrected, but nothing short of a miracle will turn a wicked and envious heart."
~~Beauty and the Beast by Mme Leprince de Beaumont.
♥ "I can quite understood," said the queen, "that wicked people are not improved by merely being thrown together."
♥ The giant then directed that all farewells must be said, and a general withdrawal made, and his order was obeyed. Folks in those days were docile and obedient, and never thought of combating ill-fortune.
~~The Friendly Frog by Mme d'Aulnoy.